Do you agree?
Well, today my kids were supposed to go back to school after Christmas break BUT we had snow overnight so school was canceled! And NO ONE is complaining! LOL!
But provided the weather cooperates I do have to go back to teaching music later this week. I’ve had the last month off from teaching in the classroom since the kids were working on a Christmas program for my church which is headed up by a couple other ladies. It’s been nice to enjoy the season but now its back to work!
So guess what I’m doing today??
Batch Planning
What is Batch Planning you may ask? Well, I used to spend a couple hours each week trying to figure out what to do with my music classes that same week. Now I spend a few hours once a month and plan the whole month of classes at one time. It saves me time and headaches to do it all at once rather than scramble each week to get it done. It also allows me to think through the materials I need so I can gather things ahead of time, especially if I need to print something or laminate something that hasn’t been laminated yet, or if I want to create something new to use this month!
First January Class Back
For the first week back, especially after a long break, I like to keep things light, easy, and fun. We are all (teacher included) trying to get back into the swing of things and get motivated, which can be tough to do after the holidays.
So this week I am planning to do a lot of review for rhythm and recorder, play some winter-themed games, and use some winter-themed play-along and movement videos from YouTube.
Rhythm Review
I will be using a simple rhythm chart that is laminated, where students can choose what note to put next in the rhythm using a dry erase marker. Then we will play the rhythm as a class on some rhythm instruments. Very simple, and low-prep!
Recorder Review
I have a simple worksheet where students fill in fingerings on a picture of a recorder for specific letters we’ve worked on (so far everyone knows G-A-B). The letters will be assigned to a simple rhythm and we will use rhythm sticks as our “pretend” recorders this week (I’m not quite ready to hear them yet! HaHa!) just to practice the fingerings as we speak the rhythms.
YouTube is a great resource!
There are so many YouTube channels that offer fun videos you can use for letter play-alongs, rhythm play-alongs, or even movement ones! The kids love them and it makes my job super easy! Some of my favorite channels are Musication, Music With Mrs. Gibbs, Mr. Henry’s Music World, and Ready Go Music
This week I will be sticking with a couple videos from Music With Mrs. Gibbs. She has a winter steady beat movement one, called Winter Beat Street, that I like to use with K-2.
Also for K-2, her video Let’s Go Ice Skating with icons and the one for quarter, eighth, rest rhythms are fun too!
For older kids I like the Snowball Splat videos! She has a few different levels that combine rhythm and a little movement. The students play the rhythms that come up and then after a few rhythms they pretend to throw snowballs at the screen to match what’s happening in the video. The kids love to see how hard they can throw their pretend snowball and it gets them up a moving a little.
These type of videos are such a time saver on days like this where I just need an easy low-prep lesson plan. I have a few more I will be pulling out over the next couple months as well that I will share later.
Miss Donna 4 Music 